King Alfred the Great

849 – 899 · Generation I · King of Wessex and of the Anglo-Saxons (r. 871–899) · House of Wessex

Alfred the Great (849–899). King of Wessex and of the Anglo-Saxons (r. 871–899). Married Ealhswith of Mercia in 868. Held England against the Danes, rebuilt learning and law, and is the only English king remembered as “the Great.” The youngest of King Æthelwulf’s sons, he watched three elder brothers reign before the crown reached him. The turning point came at Edington in 878, where victory forced terms with the Vikings that left them the Danelaw — Scandinavian York, the north-east Midlands and East Anglia — while Guthrum, the defeated leader, accepted Christianity. After retaking London in 886 he adopted a new style, “King of the Anglo-Saxons.” At his court he set up a school that taught the sons of the wellborn and the humbler-born alike, in English as well as Latin, and his life was set down by the Welsh bishop Asser. Men were already calling him “the Great” in the thirteenth century, but the name owed its currency to writers of the sixteenth.

One of 21 people of House of Wessex (until 1093) in this archive. Alfred’s line: kings of Wessex who became the first kings of all England.

Partners

Married Ealhswith of Mercia (852 – 902) in 868 — 2 children together

Children

Æthelflæd Lady of the Mercians (870 – 918)
King Edward The Elder (874 – 924)

Life

849 — Born
868 — Married Ealhswith of Mercia
871 — Alfred becomes King of Wessex following the death of his brother Aethelred
878 — Guthrum's Danish army invades Wessex, and Alfred takes refuge on the isle of Athelney. Alfred defeats Guthrum at the battle of Ethandune (Edington) in Wiltshire.
884 — Alfred defeats the Danes at Rochester
885 — Alfred imposes rules on South Wales
886 — Alfred takes London from the Danes. Danelaw - the territory occupied by the Danes in East Anglia is recognised by Alfred
890 — Guthrum dies. Alfred establishes a permanent army and navy
893 — Asser, Bishop of Sherborne, completes his book _The Life of Alfred the Great_
894 — Northumbrian and East Angles swear allegiance to Alfred, but promptly break the truce attacking South West England.
899 — Died
899 — Alfred dies and is buried at Winchester. His son Edward becomes king.